Usera names a district rather than a neighbourhood. It covers 778 hectares across 7 official neighbourhoods — Orcasitas, Orcasur, San Fermín, Almendrales, Moscardó, Zofío and Pradolongo — and none carries the district’s name. Two of them, Moscardó and Zofío, sit inside the Plaza Elíptica zone, one of only two special-protection perimeters in Madrid, where class A vehicles are barred from entering.
What is Usera in Madrid? A district of 778 hectares with 7 neighbourhoods: Orcasitas, Orcasur, San Fermín, Almendrales, Moscardó, Zofío and Pradolongo. None is called Usera. Moscardó and Zofío fall inside the Plaza Elíptica zone, barred to class A vehicles, those with no label.
The Usera district is one of Madrid’s twenty-one administrative units, with seven neighbourhoods delimited in their present form in 1987. Its regulatory quirk is sharing with Carabanchel the only special-protection perimeter outside the city centre, a boundary matching neither the district edge nor any complete neighbourhood on the map.
Getting here, and what it costs
Distance from the centre changes nothing about the fare, which is the useful thing to know first.
The whole municipality sits in fare zone A, so a metro single runs €1.50 to €2.00 according to station count, set out in what a Madrid metro ticket costs. The ring map is in how Madrid’s transport zones work and the last services in when the Madrid metro closes.
The boundary that cuts the district
Anyone arriving by car needs this before anything else, because the line is not the district edge.
The Plaza Elíptica zone covers Moscardó and Zofío here, plus Abrantes, Opañel and Comillas in Carabanchel. Inside it, vehicles of environmental class A are barred from entering and circulating, including the stretch of the A-42 motorway, subject to certain exceptions. Outside it the ordinary city-wide zone applies. The two are distinguished in Madrid’s low emission zones explained, and the other half of the perimeter in the Carabanchel district guide.
The seven neighbourhoods by size
This is a compact and fairly even district, without the scale jumps of its western neighbours.
| Neighbourhood | Code | Area |
|---|---|---|
| Zofío | 126 | 77.4 hectares |
| Almendrales | 124 | 78.0 hectares |
| Moscardó | 125 | 90.9 hectares |
| Pradolongo | 127 | 109.6 hectares |
| Orcasitas | 121 | 135.6 hectares |
| Orcasur | 122 | 138.7 hectares |
| San Fermín | 123 | 147.5 hectares |
Largest to smallest is under double here, against Carabanchel where Buenavista alone reaches 561.3 hectares. The wider naming pattern is in Madrid neighbourhoods, official and popular.
Why the zone was declared here
The cause is measured, which is why the perimeter follows streets rather than administrative units.
Plaza Elíptica and its surroundings hold the worst nitrogen dioxide records in the history of the municipal monitoring network, and in 2020 its station was the only one in Madrid to breach the annual limit set by European directive.
Frequently asked questions about the Usera district
How do you get to Usera from central Madrid?
On ordinary city transport, since the whole municipality sits in fare zone A. A metro single costs €1.50 to €2.00 depending on how many stations the journey covers, with no surcharge for the distance from the centre.
Which neighbourhoods make up Usera?
Seven. Orcasitas at 135.6 hectares, Orcasur at 138.7, San Fermín at 147.5, Almendrales at 78.0, Moscardó at 90.9, Zofío at 77.4 and Pradolongo at 109.6. None of them carries the name Usera.
Which part of Usera is inside the Plaza Elíptica zone?
The Moscardó and Zofío neighbourhoods. The rest of the perimeter falls in the Carabanchel district, covering Abrantes, Opañel and Comillas, so the zone splits five neighbourhoods between two separate districts.
Can a car without an emissions label reach Usera?
Across most of the district yes, under the ordinary city-wide rules. Inside the Plaza Elíptica perimeter no, because class A vehicles are barred from entering and circulating there, including the stretch of the A-42.
How large is the Usera district?
778 hectares, somewhat more than the Centro district at 523 and well under Carabanchel at 1,405. It is compact, with its largest neighbourhood, San Fermín, not quite double the smallest, Zofío.
Seven neighbourhoods, one council board and a line that crosses only two of them.